Back home in Magnolia, Tori could be found once again looking around for any sort of paying work. Catching up with a few people with whom she already made acquaintances passing by, Tori scoured the streets of her guild's home town with a keen eye for any sort of notice. Sure enough, she spotted a 'Help Wanted' sign in the window of the Mag Drug Magic Shop. Tori had seen this business a couple of times in passing, but had never stepped inside. She figured now would be the perfect opportunity. She pushed open the old door which let out a creek proving its apparent age.

Inside sat an old bearded man, his hair grayed with age, studying some kind of tome on the counter. The inside reeked of something Tori could not quite explain, imagining the odor of week old gym socks mixed with that of rotten eggs. Feint wisps of smoke could be seen escaping the back room, possessing a beautiful shade of lavender, drawing her attention down its flight path. The walls were lined with all sorts of trinkets and talismans, even a large plant in the window that looked something akin to a venus fly trap. All of the new things to Tori would have to wait though, as time and again she had proven that she was a woman of business. She cleared her throat to get the old man's attention, which caused him to jump slightly at the sudden noise. "Excuse me, sir. I'm Tori and I was wanting to ask you about your sign in the window?" she inquired, a genuinely curious tone in her voice.

"Ah, yes of course!" he exclaimed while hopping up spryly from his stool behind the counter. "I'm short a few ingredients for my latest potion, and I need someone more able bodied than myself to gather them for me. It's only three herbs and they are fairly straight forward if not a little difficult to find." he explained, hoping the young woman would agree to his chore. He was more than capable of gathering these herbs himself, but why bother if he could get some youthful mage to do it for him? After little to no hesitation, Tori proclaimed she would be glad to retrieve his herbs for him in exchange for a little insider information on the project he was working on. The old shop owner agreed to her conditions and have her a list of what she had to procure for him and the general means to find the plants. He also provided a drawing of each plant so that she didn't have to run the risk of returning to him something which he did not need. With barely another word, Tori was off to pick some magical plants. The ice mage was informed that all three herbs could be found within the East Forest, which made total sense. Where else would you find herbs in the wild but in a forest? She was honestly just glad that they weren't a long distance away like in the Worth Woodsea.

Looking at her instructions, her first thing on the shopping list was a curly fern. After barely walking any distance at all, Tori found a whole bushel of plants that matched the old man's description and drawing. Pushing slightly wilted ones aside, she reached into the bottom of the bushel and pulled out a handful of ferns as fresh as could be. With gentle care, she placed them into the side pocket of her backpack, so as not to be crushed by the magical ice tome her bag also contained. Referring back to the list, she was now searching for a blue lichen. the shop owner added a note that explained blue lichen are most often found on rotting logs. That was easy enough, but what made it difficult was the fact that East Forest didn't have any dead trees that Tori had ever seen. Looking around though, she couldn't help but love it here in the forest. It was so tranquil and serene. Lost in thought, the fairy didn't see the log she was coming up to and subsequently tripped over the tree remains, slightly rolling it. It was then Tori noticed a slight hint of blue coming from the crack now present beneath the log and ground and when she pushed the log forward, there was a fresh blue lichen plant rooted to the log's underside. She referred to her list one last time, and her last grocery was red leafed vine. The note said that it grew on the largest trees deep in the forest, so that's just where the Dragon Slayer was going to have to go. She searched for what seemed like hours, finding dozens of enormous trees, but none that had red leafed vine hanging from its branches.

After another hour of avidly searching, Tori saw a hint of red on the ground and immediately looked up. There it was! The sunlight was breaching the canopy of the trees and reflecting that red light to the ground. Nature really was something. It didn't take much thought on how to climb the tree however, as Tori suddenly manifested her sword spell not once, but twice on either arm, and began using them to climb the tree. Digging each sword into the trunk of the tree just enough to hold her weight, but not so deep that she couldn't pull it out, the blonde slowly made her way up the tree before she finally reached the vine. Using her sword, she sliced off a portion which fell to the ground with a flop. She then climbed back down as she climbed up and collected her quarry to go into the bag with the other two herbs. It took a couple of hours to reach town again from that deep in the forest, but she made her way back to the magic shop and set the three herbs onto the counter in front of the old man. Without a word, he collected them and tossed them into a bubbling cauldron, causing it to change to a forest green color. He put some potion in a vial and offered Tori a sip, explaining it would replenish her mana. She took a sip and winced at its less than desirable taste, but thanked him nonetheless. She bid him farewell and was on her way to find her next payout.

1074/1000

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